Cold Grave by Jenny O'Brien{book 6 and the final in the series}

 

I just love Jenny O'Brien.  She writes a great series which brings the characters to life and doesn't overdo the personal entanglements at the expense of the police investigation.

Detective Gaby Darin is a Welsh detective of Italian background, fiercely loyal to her team, job and a woman you'd want in your corner.

After a few DNF books it was a great pleasure to sit back with one of my favorite authors and series. I am sad to see this series end but what a way to tie things up.  Hoping we see the team back together again in the future as I loved watching these characters develop.

Gaby, Mal, Owen, Marie, Jax and Rusty are well fleshed out. I feel as if I know them and can certainly get a mental image of them all. If you are looking for a series which involves police procedurals, a little bit of the detectives' personal lives and is grittier than a cozy - this is your series.  

Sharing with Joy's Book Blog for British Isles Friday.

Buried Lies by Jenny O'Brien

 

Hannah is a nurse who is engaged to Ian and has a son named Hunter.  Her friend/coworker Milly invites her to go away to a posh hotel and enjoy the spa treatment when Milly's boyfriend up and leaves her.  The weekend is paid for so Hannah agrees to take the trip.

This is her first time away from Hunter but thought a weekend away would give Ian and Hunter time to bond and give Ian a chance to see what being a stepfather is all about. When Hannah returns home she finds Ian dead and her son is missing. What a nightmare.

When Gaby's team arrives to investigate they recognize Ian as one of the new police officers hired.  It appears he commited suicide but anyone who has read a police procedural will know this could be one of the red herrings inserted in the plot. Hannah is obviously bereaved and frantic but is also a suspect in the case.  She has a past which revealed a patient death under suspicious circumstances. 

The Welsh names of cities come up which is a part I like.  Love traveling to Betws-y-Coed, Conwy, Y Mwyar Duon in Ruthin, Llandudno and Rhos-on-Sea in Wales through virtual travel.

Buried Lies is the fifth book in the Detective Gaby Darin series and I blew through this novel in a day.  I enjoyed the first four books and was delighted to be approved for an advanced readers copy of this series.  As the characters develop I find I'm quite attached to them, watching them grow in their personal and professional lives.

Here is a list of the Detective Gaby Darin series:

Missing in Wales (book 1, titled Silent Cry in the UK editions)

Darkest Night (book 2)

Fallen Angel (book 3)

Lost Souls (book 4)

Publication date November 17, 2021 by St. Martin's Press.  Genre: General Fiction, Mystery and Thriller. you to Netgalley for the advanced reader's copy of this book.  I was not compensated for the review, all opinions are mine.

Sharing with Joy's Book Blog for British Isles Friday.

Lost Souls by Jenny O'Brien

I will start by saying I absolutely love this series. Jenny O'Brien does it again by pulling me into the hectic lives of Gabriella "Gaby" Darin, Rusty Mullholland and the team of likeable detectives in Northern Wales.  The Welsh setting is beautiful and I sent my Welsh friend Jo a list of the unpronounceable names (for me) so she could translate. 

Some place names are Rhos-on-Sea, Llandudno, Ystad golygfa'r mor and Aberystwyth.

We begin with Gaby Darin is the position of acting Detective Inspector, her leading the team of detectives in the search for a missing ten year old girl, Elodie "Ellie" Fry. The little girl has a happy home life with her single mother but something she discovers terrifies her and she runs away.  You will discover later on in the book what the horrific finding was and why she ran.

To complicate matters there is a case about a missing elderly woman who failed to show up at her bridge club meeting. Her fridge is stocked with food, a tea cup is left on the counter and it appears she simply vanished into thin air.  After the crime scene folks arrived to investigate they find traces of blood which were hastily cleaned up.  This opens up much older cases of missing elderly residents in the area.  

But wait - there's more! A man who cleans the crematorium arrives at the police station to report three hip replacement prothesthics were found after the last cremation.  Apparently  someone is disposing of "body parts" in a way no one would ever discover, until an employee is spot on about his job and reports this discovery. 

The hunt for the missing girl takes priority yet Gaby's team of detectives, torn in three diferent directions, work tirelessly to solve all three cases.   I will say I was surprised by the way everything came together. Another excellent mystery tying up all the loose ends.  I can't wait for the next book to see where Gaby's career is headed. Her temporary appointment to D.I. could become a permanent position but we won't know until the next book. There is some drama about that appointment and the competition.

 Publication date May 21, 2021 by  HQ Digital.  Genre: General Fiction, Mystery and Thrillers.

Thank you to NetGalley for the advanced reader's copy of this book.  I was not compensated for the review, all opinions are mine.

Sharing with Joy's Book Blog for British Isles Friday.

Fallen Angel by Jenny O'Brien

 

The setting is northern Wales and our recovering detective Gaby Darin is back in the third installment of this series.  Gaby is acting Detective Inspector while the the current DI is on sick leave trying to beat cancer. 

As there seems to a lull in crime in Llandudno, DI Darin and her team look into old cold cases.  Her right hand man and friend Owen Bates brings her the case about Angelica Brock.  She was found in a remote area with her white blonde hair spread around her like a halo, dressed in an old white nightdress which was not her own and curled in a fetal position.  There wasn't DNA to help then.

The case from over 20 years ago looked like a random killing but as the team goes over the old case notes connections appear with other unsolved murders, too many to be coincidence.  There are good surprises woven into the storyline and I very much enjoyed the detectives' interaction with one another. I am especially fond of the medical examiner Rusty Mulholland. 

Thank you to Netgalley for the complimentary copy of this book.  This was published 20 November 2020 and is the third book in the Detective Gaby Darin series. I was not compensated for my review.

Genre is Mystery and Thrillers/Adult Fiction

Darkest Night by Jenny O'Brien

Christine De Bertrand is a divorced  woman and stays in most nights.  She’s a teacher and homebody but on her birthday her friends manage to drag her out for a fun evening of celebration. She has a very uncharacteristic evening of excessive drinking, partying and brings home a stranger for the night.

This is a first for her and when she awakens to the seemingly sleeping body next to her, she flees the bed to get meds for the massive headache and makes coffee. She’s in for a surprise when she returns to the bedroom, hoping to gently roust the dark haired man from her pub night.  There will be at least one homicide in the DC Gabriella Darin series so you can probably guess Christine will be a suspect for murder. Then the other characters are introduced and the pool of suspects gets a little larger.

We are taken to Wales via Jenny O’Brien’s latest book in the Gabriella Darin series.  I am enjoying this series and happy to know there are more books planned.  This is book 2 and we are following DC Gaby Darin in her personal life and career path with a Welsh police agency.

“North Wales was stunning with its stretches of golden beaches, incomparbale lush fields abd hills coated in green.”

A character I am hoping will be developed is Medical Examiner Rusty Mullholland.  She’s gruff and yet appealing.

MIssing in Wales by Jenny O'Brien

 

DC Gariella Darin is a new officer in the police department having recently transfered from Swansea.

She is assigned to work with DI Rhys Walker who was the lead in the case for a missing man and baby five years prior. Izzy Grant could never let go or move on after her boyfriend Charlie and their 1 month old daughter Alys disappeared.  Charlie was taking Alys out to give Izzy a rest.

Izzy wakes from her nap and realizes they hadn’t returned.  The opening chapter drops you into Izzy’s mind as she experiences the terror of looking through the empty house, calling Charlie’s cell and getting no answer.  No sign of them or the car was ever found – this is in the begining. Then the cold case gets reopened.

There are some books where you peg who’s the killers or there are multiple suspects you can narrow down.  Nope, not this one.  There were a few times when it was slow moving but that doesn’t last long,  I never saw it coming, the villian was a surprise to me.

I liked DC Gaby Darin as soon as she was introduced and was delighted there is a second book upcoming and hopefully it’s a series. Oh, it should be mentioned this book is titled Silent Cry in the UK editions.  I say that so you don’t buy the same book twice.

I love the cover and this is how I armchair traveled to Wales.  Would that I could take Harry Potter’s Floo Powder and pop in near Swansea or Cardiff.  Alas……..